Stage and screen actress Kerry Washington has been cast as the female lead in Quentin Tarantino's upcoming film "Django Unchained," according to Deadline.com.

Washington will join a cast that includes Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson (The Mountaintop), Christoph Waltz ("Carnage") and Leonardo DiCaprio.

In "Django Unchained" Washington will play the role of Broomhilda, the wife of long-suffering slave Django (Foxx). In the film, Django is freed by a bounty hunter (Waltz) and sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner, Calvin Candie (DiCaprio).

Washington has been seen on Broadway in David Mamet's Race. She has also appeared in the film "For Colored Girls," based on Ntozake Shange's award-winning play for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf. Her other film credits include "The Details," "Night Catches Us," "Mother and Child" and "Life is Hot in Cracktown," among others.